Nuns Everywhere Are Crying

Remember learning to write "cursive?" When I went to Catholic school, we didn't call it that, of course, we called it "penmanship," or "handwriting." All we knew is that learning to write these magic letters on the lined tablets was a huge step forward in parochial education. Maybe this was a girl thing, but I never minded penmanship and got fairly good grades in it.

Well, apparently cursive is dying, thanks to computers and other electronic devices. Perhaps those younger than me don't hate the idea of cursive going the way of the rotary telephone and black and white televisions. But it's another reminder of just how freakin' old I am.

Here's an excerpt of the story:

"The loss of handwriting also may be a cognitive opportunity missed. The neurological process that directs thought, through fingers, into written symbols is a highly sophisticated one. Several academic studies have found that good handwriting skills at a young age can help children express their thoughts better -- a lifelong benefit. Children who don't learn correct technique find it harder to write by hand, so they avoid it. Schools that do teach handwriting often stop after third grade -- right after kids learn cursive. By the time computers are more widely used in classrooms for writing, perhaps in fourth or fifth grade, many children already have decided they don't like to write.

In one of the studies, Vanderbilt University professor Steve Graham, who studies the acquisition of writing, experimented with a group of first-graders in Prince George's County who could write only 10 to 12 letters per minute. The kids were given 15 minutes of handwriting instruction three times a week. After nine weeks, they had doubled their writing speed and their expressed thoughts were more complex. He also found corresponding increases in their sentence construction skills.

But Graham worries that students who remain printers, rather than writing in cursive, need more time to take notes or write essays for the SAT. Teachers may say they don't deduct for bad handwriting in class, but research tells another story, he said."

The other thing that disappears along with penmanship lessons is the individuality that it presents - I remember my Mom's neat, even handwriting, always perfectly spaced. And her sister's rather odd, but equally even, distinctive backhand.

I think about generations that come after us...Will they use emoticons to express themselves, rather than their own hand? Kind of sad to think of the Declaration of Independence typed by a machine, eh?

Time marches on.